


Fragments of Lives Well Lived

by Angel_Negra



Category: Power Rangers R.P.M.
Genre: Gen, M/M, Multi, five things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-06
Updated: 2013-01-06
Packaged: 2017-11-23 20:52:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/626407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angel_Negra/pseuds/Angel_Negra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Ranger Series Operator team - past, present and future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fragments of Lives Well Lived

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rivulet027](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rivulet027/gifts).



> For Riv, because she's awesome.

**Crafting: Gem and Gemma**

Alphabet Soup had a project in the works. One enterprising agent billed it as a strike force of great skills and intelligence, all united in a single mind. It was backed up by a second agent's experiments in detecting latent psychic abilities in children. It was instigated with two young children. Both of Asian descent, both orphans.

The initial tests show promise, and the children bond well. They take a shine to one supervisor's phrasing of them being diamonds in the rough and name themselves accordingly.

Phase two shows problems. Intellectual maturity grows at an alarming rate, while emotional maturity seems to backslide. Any attempts at introducing new children to the squad fails. New inductees either fail to develop the needed skills or crack under the pressure.

Funding is cut before an attempt can be made to move to Phase three. Alphabet Soup is left with two subjects, too smart and too connected to release into the world as if nothing had happened. A new, freshly promoted, enterprising young agent, suggests lending the pair to the Ranger Series project. Approval is granted and subject K is studied in her adaptability to subjects Gem and Gemma.

**Common Sense: Flynn/Ziggy**

"I thought you were dating Dr. K." Flynn's not proud that this is the first thing that pops out of his mouth after Ziggy kisses him so hard his knees go weak. But, well, his knees are weak and his head is spinning and he's some how managed to wrap both arms around Ziggy's waist tightly.

Ziggy rolls his eyes. "I'm not dating her, I'm just being physically affectionate with her because clearly, she was never hugged enough as a child. Besides, if I do it enough around Gem and Gemma, they pile on and she smiles for the rest of day."

"And she knows this?" Flynn can't help but ask, thinking of her large sonic gun.

Ziggy wraps his arms around Flynn's shoulders and says, "her exact words were 'Oh Ziggy, Flynn's a wonderful example of hunky human man and you're always acting like a married couple, so please stop pining around my computers, you're making them develop feelings too.'"

Flynn blinks. "She did not say that."

"Well," says Ziggy with an easy shrug, "I sorta paraphrased." Then he leans in and kisses Flynn again.

Flynn stops arguing after that.

**Flight Patterns: Gemma/Scott/Gem**

Gemma tended to lay in wait for when Scott was leaving the bathroom. Didn't seem to matter what bathroom. On the new airbase, in the old garage, at his Dad's. If Scott Truman was leaving a bathroom, Gemma was waiting on the other side of that door with a bright grin and her hands fiddling with something that could blow up at least two blocks in all directions.

Gem was more a fan of random tackling. Onto the couch, onto Scott's bed, and on one memorable occasion, a hayride. Thankfully, he's never holding explosives, but he always has a grin to match Gemma's.

Scott would be more worried, but neither of his squad mates are doing much after the initial ambushes. There's general chatting, movie and dinner invites, the odd party. He didn't really mind at all. The old Eagle Squadron was more Marcus' team, with Scott as the rookie/little brother that got tacked on simply because they'd run out of pilots. He liked the idea of teammates that liked him for himself.

He liked it enough that he'd gone and developed his own form of ambushing. When Gem and Gemma converge on a tech lab, either to take apart a leftover attackbot or to build something to explode... well, anything, Scott usually found himself wandering into the lab within their first few minutes of tinkering.

He never knows what they're doing, but it was fun watching them. And he'd developed a good rhythm of when to feed them and when to drag them to bed. Sometimes, if Scott managed to get them to a bed, he'd find himself dragged down into a pile of limbs. He doesn't mind. He knows them now, and he's willing to go along for the ride.

**Bloom: Dillon, Summer & Tenaya**

When they'd left Corinth, Summer had made a point of packing several books on camping and surviving in the wilderness. Within a month, all of them were well thumbed, worn, stained and had spines full of creases. Despite the areas where nature was taking back the planet, they don't actually meet any other people for several months.

Summer winds up doing most of the talking. Dillon was never chatty to begin with and while Tenaya was talkative with her brother and Summer, she was suddenly shy around new people. Summer finds that she's really good at diplomacy, even if she doesn't enjoy it like she used to when she would host weekly parties.

The people they meet are drifters. Survivors who either hadn't made it to Corinth in time or had managed to scrape by in the badlands. Survival tips are bartered for as much as food, water and shelter are. Tenaya has taken to drawing maps of the areas, based on their travels and the stories of others. Dillon is able to trade copies in exchange for more gas.

From time to time, planes will fly along over Dillon's car and drop a parcel of supplies nearby, signed by Scott, Gemma and Gem. Ziggy always includes a thick envelope of letters full of gossip. They haven't replied back in any real way yet, though Tenaya has been making some tentative sketches of a machine that would launch a parcel that Scott, Gem or Gemma would be able to grab from the air.

Neither Dillon nor Tenaya have shown signs of wanting to settle down. Not in any of the slowing growing natural clearings nor in any of the ghost towns that people have been fixing up. Summer's not too worried though. She, instead, thinks of when she was a little girl and Andrews used to show her the hummingbirds that flocked to the garden. There can be beauty and peace, even in constant movement.

**Cocoon: Dr. K**

K barely remembers the outside. It, much like her family and her own name, is a fuzzy thing from back Before. Before, when the strange man and woman came and helped make her numbers and equations her whole life. She does remember that it was nice and that being so sick that she couldn't stay out there anymore was a horrible feeling that she constantly hid from in her equations.

It was why she both loved and hated it when Gem and Gemma were introduced to her life. She hated that she could find joy with two people who didn't share her sickness. She hated that the warmth they inspired reminded her of the warmth of outside. But she also craved it in a way that made her continuously grateful that neither of them was ever phased by her abrupt nature.

The day she found the butterfly is one that K will never forget. The sunbeam on her hand warmed her skin so perfectly and shattered her worldview so utterly. She knows it will never justify why she created Venjix, but she keeps the knowledge close that this is the kind of thing she can do if her world is thrown into chaos.

K leaves Alphabet Soup with the horror of what she can ruin burned into her soul. She avoids every sunbeam she can. She shouldn't get the reward of that warmth after what she caused.

She tries so hard to keep to her room in the garage. And then just to the garage. To her dying day, K will never be able to break down the component parts of her mind to fully explain how she manages to develop the closest relationships with such infuriating people. First Gem and Gemma and later the other Ranger Series Operators, especially Ziggy.

K leaves the garage for Ziggy. She knows that the sunlight of Corinth isn't exactly real. And she holds that knowledge as a shield to its warmth. Still, it's Ziggy's pestering that makes her think that she can be allowed some measure of forgiveness for her sins, if only from herself.

In the end, when the morphers have been stored away for good, K still finds herself hiding for as long as possible. She passes it off as not wanting to go into a school building still being built, firstly. And then pointing out that using computer monitors might be more expedient.

Then, one day, Ziggy comes into her lab. He plucks her marshmallow peep from her fingers and replaces it with a dried apple chip, grinning at her disgusted face. He pops the peep into his mouth, chewing slowly and staring at her meaningfully until she gives in and eats the stupid chip. He grows serious when she stares at him expectantly.

"It's my birthday and you're my best friend," he says as he stands and holds out a hand. "Come outside with me."

She does.


End file.
